


Sorrow's weary pilgrims

by SkittishCat



Series: Beyond the Walls [3]
Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Gen, The curse of the determinant character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-19 22:34:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20664890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkittishCat/pseuds/SkittishCat
Summary: As her rise to power continues, the newcomer learns more about what happened to Clementine after the events of TFS.





	Sorrow's weary pilgrims

Santee reminded Glenn of the Alexandria safe zone. The settlement his grandfather had once settled in had been a residential district that a previous leader had had the wisdom to wall off during the early days of the trials. Santee had been a small, mostly residential town next to a lake. The big difference between them was, Santee had no wall. The survivors who had built Santee into the capitol of The Atlantic Federation had started out by building a settlement on the Francis Marion Bridge. Lake Marion was their wall, all they had to do to stay safe was control access to their bridge, which they accomplished by collapsing small sections at either end of the bridge near the shore and rigging up drawbridges to cover each gap. Over time, they built an elaborate citadel on the man-made island that supported the middle portion of the bridge using whatever materials they could find. The safety of the citadel drew people to Santee, just as the wall had drawn people to Alexandria, and Clementine’s legend had drawn people to Everett. Once the old world walkers had rotted away, the residents of the citadel expanded into the ruins of the old town, and post-apocalypse Santee grew well past its pre-apocalypse borders.

The Citadel now served as the seat of government for The Atlantic Federation, and apparently it was where the local guards were bringing Glenn and his Appalachian escort. After two weeks on a horse he had hoped he’d get a chance to rest before meeting with the local leaders, but it looked like that just wasn’t going to happen. As he got closer he could see that the vaunted citadel of Santee was little more than a giant pile of boxes. When he examined the component parts, Glenn could make out various trailers and shipping containers with a few boat bridges on top acting as towers at each corner. They’d been neatly stacked, reinforced, had doors and windows added, painted bright colors, decorated with murals, and adorned with art works, but still they couldn’t hide the fact that it was just a castle made out of junk.

Glenn counted seven levels of boxes, plus the towers, and he just knew that wherever they were going, it would be at the top level. Sure enough, his guides did not disappoint, leading his party up a winding path that included six flights of stairs that eventually lead to the audience chamber of Valerie Ubaste, President of The Atlantic Federation. They were ushered into the stark chamber through an ornate wooden double door. There had been a time when the office of President had been an elected one, but no one had ever cast a vote for Valerie. She had taken the title by force and had held it for nearly twenty years. Like Clementine, she did not respond kindly to threats, intentional or otherwise, so Glenn would have to tread carefully.

The chamber must have been made of three Conex boxes welded together. A large window with a view of the lake had been installed opposite the entrance. Only two pieces of furniture could be seen in the room, one desk and one chair, and both were near the window. Potted plants and statues alternated with each other along either side of the room. The occupant of the chair sat with her back to the door, looking out the window as she spoke. “Who the hell did you bring me this time?” She had a thick Louisiana accent and a raspy voice, like someone who’d spent their life yelling or smoking or both.

The guard answered “Glenn Grimes, Madam, representative of the Virginia Coalition in exile. He is accompanied by a delegation from the Appalachian Union.”

As she swiveled her chair to face them, Valerie interjected “Union? You’re still calling it that? Isn’t Clementine basically your queen now?”

Ruth, the senior member of the Appalachian delegation, politely answered “Begging your pardon ma’am, despite whatever rumors you may have heard, Clementine has not been named our queen. Her only title is that of council chair.” Glenn was impressed that Ruth managed to avoid pointing out that Valerie’s accusation could be said about her as well.

Valerie smirked as she asked “But isn’t the rest of your council dead?”

“Yes, they are.” Ruth conceded.

“And have you made any attempt to replace them?” continued Valerie

With the composure of a professional, Ruth replied “Our current focus is on bringing our war with The Provident to a swift conclusion. Our leadership has decided to hold off on conducting elections to replace our fallen representative until peace has been restored.”

Valerie laughed until she coughed, then countered “Oh, honey, don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining, I hate it when people try to bullshit me, especially you political types. Clementine killed off her competition and now she’s using the war as an excuse to make sure they don’t get replaced. When the war ends, which won’t be anytime soon, she’s not going to give up control. Hell, even before your war, look at who was in charge of everything. She had her friends running her city and her kids running her army. They still do. Face it, darlin’, she’s your fucking queen, get used to it. Now that we got that straight, lets get something else out of the way. You’re here to ask me to join your war, am I right?”

Ruth began to answer “We have come to ask that you...”

Valerie cut her off “Oh cut the crap! You, Virginia, maybe you’ve heard of the words yes and no. Are you here to ask for my help or not?”

Glenn answered with a sharp, clear “Yes”. At last, his laconic nature might finally come in handy.

Valerie sat back in her chair and smiled “Good, we have someone who knows how to tell it like it is. These Appalachians wouldn’t recognize the truth if it bit ‘em on the ass. Now, I ain’t gonna lie to y’all… I’ll leave that up to your queen… The Provident beat you to it. They asked me to join them, y’know, basically like what you’re doing now. I told them I’d think about it. I figured y’all’d be coming eventually and I wanted to see if you could make me a better offer. So, tell me, Mr. Virginia, what is it you’re offering me to help you win back your home.”

Glenn had the distinct impression that she’d know if he made any embellishments, so he kept his answer as candid as possible. “If you’re looking for riches, I have nothing to offer. I made it out with my horse and what I had on me. The Provident have occupied my home long enough that I don’t expect we’ll find anything of material value left in Alexandria once it’s been liberated, so I can’t even offer any sort of future payment either. All I can offer is the gratitude of my people, and the knowledge that if you should ever need our aid someday, we will remember that we are in your debt.”

Valerie snorted with laughter “So basically your offer is the same as the one The Provident made, a big fat nothing. They offered me salvation, you’ve offered me thanks. I’m not interested in either. But you, Miss Appalachia, you do have something I’m interested in: Power. I’m no fool. I know I’m the small time player in this match. Up until a few years ago, if you were to ask me who the big boys on this block were, I’d have answered The Commonwealth and The Gulf, but then they had to go and start tearing themselves apart, and well, lately you and The Provident have been flexing mighty hard. The way I see it, whichever one of you wins won’t stop with Virginia, you’ll be coming for me next, so I may as well get mine while the getting’s good. Which means I gotta choose, do I throw in with the monarchy or the theocracy? For someone who enjoys sin as much as I do, that’s a pretty easy decision, but there is a down side to being under the rule of some nut-job who’s high on power, just ask any of the citizens of Santee who’ve had to deal with me. Now, I know I don’t have much time left, every morning I wake up and it feels like I might cough up a lung, so at this point, I’m just looking out for my legacy. I’ve got six kids and thirty-one grandkids. I need to know they’ll be provided for after I’m gone. I got to thinking, if my family were to become part of the new royal family, well then they’ll be taken care of for a good long time, and it just so happens I have a granddaughter, Phoebe, who’s the same age as Clementine’s grandson, Lee. You get where I’m going with this, dontcha?”

What she was hinting at left Glenn feeling ill-at-ease. Hesitantly he answered “Yeah, I do, but from what I’ve seen of Clem, I don’t think she’ll be OK with it.”

Valerie shot Glenn a devilish smile “Well then, I guess we’ll find out just how badly she wants my help. Lee’s gotta come here and marry Phoebe. If Clementine expects me to commit hundreds of my people to her cause, first she has to commit this particular one to mine. I won’t be sending any of my soldiers north of the Roanoke until the union between the Crawfords and the Ubastes is official. Even then Lee will be staying with me in Santee. Think of it as an insurance policy, to make sure Clementine doesn’t change her mind about our little arrangement once we’ve finished off The Provident. Don’t worry, it won’t be permanent. In a few years, when Clementine and I share a common great-grandkid, he’ll be free to go. Until then, he’ll just have to adjust to living with his auntie Val… or whichever of my kids takes over once I’ve gone on to my reward.

A stunned Ruth replied “We will… relay your message to Clementine.”

In the midst of a coughing fit, Valerie dismissively flicked her hand at Ruth and croaked out “You do that little missy. Bye-bye now” between coughs. Glenn and the Appalachians turned to leave but Valerie called out to him “Not you, Virginia, I’m not done with you yet.” He and Ruth looked hesitantly at each other before the guard shoved Ruth through the door and shut it behind them. “Come closer” she ordered, “I don’t wanna have to shout.”

Glenn did as he was asked, and walked right up to her desk. From there he could see that the cloth she was coughing into had been soaked through with blood. He had seen that before. “Tuberculosis?” he asked.

“None of your fucking business.” Was her reply, followed by another round of coughing. When she could breathe again she held the rag open in her palm so Glenn could see the amount of blood that had accumulated in it and snapped “Does that answer your question? Of course it’s TB! Shit’s been coming back with a vengeance. But I didn’t call you over to test your knowledge of killer coughs. I want to make sure you know what you’ve gotten yourself into, that your new friend Clementine isn’t your friend at all and she sure as shit ain’t helpin’ you out of the kindness of her heart. One day payment will come due and you can bet your ass, she’ll collect in full. I’d tell you that you should find out right quick what she expects in return, but I’ve already got a pretty good idea.” She leaned forward and snarled “Everything” then leaned back in her chair and nodded for a moment before continuing with her speech. “That girl, she won’t be satisfied until she rules the world, and you know what, given enough time, she might just do it. I suppose that’s why God gives us all an expiration date, so people like her can’t do so much damage that the rest of us can’t clean it up. But that won’t help you and me. No, son, it won’t. You need to recognize that no matter how this turns out, Virginia will never be independent again. When she’s done with The Provident, she will own you. That’ll be the bill for her liberating your people; your sovereignty… and mine. Some liberation that is… There’s no stopping her. Lots of folks’ve tried. They all thought she was weak, that she’d be easy pickins. Every last one of them is farming worms as we speak. You’d think they’d figure it out by now but no one seems to be able to catch on to this simple fact: underestimate Clementine at your peril. I know for a fact that when she comes for me, I won’t be able to a damn thing about it. Stopping her is like stopping the tide, you just need to accept that it’s coming and make the best of it. All I can do at this point is make sure I get something in return, while I still have something left to bargain with. You’d be wise to do the same, before it’s too late. Now go on, your friends are probably getting pretty paranoid about what we might be plotting.”

Glenn paused, turned to leave, and then turned back. “You said to get something in return while I still have something to bargain with. I don’t have anything to bargain with. I told you from the start, all I have to offer is the gratitude of my people.”

Valerie gave a smile that was a combination of bemusement and pity. “Remind me again, what’s your name?”

“Glenn” he replied.

Valerie closed her eyes, lowered her head, and exclaimed “Lord, grant me strength” then raised her head, gave Glenn the piteous smile again, and continued “Let’s try again, what’s your name, Glenn?”

Taking the hint, Glenn answered “Grimes.”

Valerie cocked her head and concluded “That’s what you have to bargain with.” She then raised the cloth to her mouth with one hand for another coughing fit and shooed Glenn away with the other.

A guard had been waiting in the hall to show him out. Glenn was reunited with Ruth and the other Appalachians on the road just beyond the drawbridge to the south. She had received directions to lodgings that had been made available to them, which it turned out had only recently been cleared of its previous owner a few days earlier and still reeked of well-rotted walker. The locals had removed the body but left the stains for their guests to clean up.

Once they’d sufficiently aired the place out and cleaned up the source of the stench, the Appalachians got to work setting up their radio and checking to make sure none of the locals might be close enough to listen in. Ruth called in her report, using a language Glenn couldn’t understand. When she was finished, Glenn asked “Is that Poqomam?” It hadn’t occurred to him that perhaps he shouldn’t reveal that Aasim had shared one of their secrets with him.

Ruth raised her eyebrows with suspicion and asked “What do you mean?”

A bit confused, Glenn clarified “Isn’t Poqomam the name of the language Alice taught you to speak over the radio?”

Hesitantly Ruth answered “Gaelic was the language she taught me. I just assumed she taught the same language to all of the diplomats, but if that’s the language she taught whoever represents us in Alexandria, I guess my assumption was incorrect.” More forcefully she continued “Linguistics aside, we have new orders. Clem’s out of town, so we’ll have to wait to hear back from her about Valerie’s proposal. Something’s come up, she left a message for you to join her ASAP. She says to get to Havendale, someone will be waiting for you there.” With a pained look she added “I’m to remain here to continue the negotiations with Val.”

It was too late in the day to set out for Havendale, so it was decided that Glenn and his escort would depart in the morning. They arose at first light and when they stepped outside they saw Valerie and several of her men loading three large, ornate, wooden boxes onto their wagon. One of the Appalachian escorts returned inside to wake Ruth, who promptly came outside to ascertain what was going on. Seeing her approach Valerie called out to her “Cead mile failte, Ruth! Did I say that right? I don’t actually speak Gaelic, but Brendan here, he does. He taught me that on the way here. Your friends on the radio tried to contact you during the night. I don’t know if you were asleep or stepped out or what, but Brendan was kind enough to take a message for you. Don’t worry, he’s been listening in to your chats long enough that he’s got a pretty good handle on your radio protocols, they didn’t seem to notice they weren’t talking to one of you. Clem says there’s no way in hell she’s sending Lee here, the war’s almost over so y’all don’t need me anyway, and your mission just became a trade mission.” She paused to savor Ruth’s reaction when she learned that her diplomatic code had been broken and that she’d be stuck in Santee, then continued; “Oh, but I didn’t come to be your messenger. I brought some gifts for you to take back to your queen.” She walked over to the rear of the wagon, coughing as she went, and beckoned for them to join her.

The chests were made of walnut with different images carved on each side representing the afterlife; Heaven’s gate on the front, Valhalla on the back, Elysium on the right, and the Field of Reeds on the left. Each box had a name carved into the hinged lid in an ornate script. The box on the left had the name “Lee Everett” carved into it, the center box displayed the name “Edward Crawford”, while the box on the right bore the name “C. Oberson Crawford”. Valerie explained “After Johnstown, I figured it was only a matter of time before Clem set her sights my way, and I’d need to get on her good side before that happened. Then I remembered this” She held up a worn book, the flimsy sort that that had been commonly produced after the trials. A cardstock bookmark with the Initials “U.U.” on it stuck out from the middle of the book. The book was titled “The Queen of ashes”. The sketch on the cover depicted a tall woman in a baseball cap with hair flowing down to her waist, towering over several people who were falling backwards with blood spurting from their chests, holding a smoking revolver that looked bigger than any of their heads. Glenn cringed when he realized the sketch was meant to depict Clem. Clearly the artist had never met her. Valerie pointed to the title and exclaimed “Well would you look at that, they were already calling her queen back when this was printed. What was that, fifteen, twenty years ago? Go on, keep denying it.”

She opened the book to the marked page and read a passage that described the events of Lee Everett’s death. She closed the book and commented “It just so happens, Savannah is now in my territory. This book gave us enough to work with to find him.” She opened the hinged lid on Lee’s box, revealing a neatly arranged skeleton on a royal blue velvet cushion with decayed shoes and cloth scraps piled in the front right corner. “He was right where the book describes, in the ruins of a jewelry store near The Marsh House, next to a radiator with handcuffs attached to it.” She opened the second box. “Ed was a matter of luck.” She pulled out a wallet and opened it to display his driver’s license “The expedition leader took the initiative to search the remains in the street outside The Marsh House. He found this, that’s how we ID’d her dad. He searched for her mom too but never found anything conclusive. As for Oberson, well, we found some letters among Ed’s things in the hotel room, real nasty ones at that. Apparently Oberson considered Ed to be the least accomplished of his children and wasn’t shy about saying it.” Sarcastically she added “Just a master’s from Stanford and a six figure income. I can’t imagine how he survived the shame of it.” She snorted out a laugh. “He’s lucky he wasn’t my dad, with the kinda life I’ve lived, I’da drove him to an early grave.” She regained her composure and continued. “Those letters led us to the Crawford district where we found Clem’s gramps had been real busy sticking people on skewers. Looks like we found where she inherited that tendency from.” Val opened the lid on the third box and pulled out some papers. “We found stacks of these all over the place.” They were various message posts. Some had the picture of a curly haired man on them with the words “C. Oberson Crawford Leader” at the top while most just had the name “Crawford, Oberson” posted under the message. One even listed him as “Crawford Oberson” without the coma… a typo apparently. “We found this mangled pile of bones at the bottom of a bell tower but, like Ed, he was carrying a wallet.” She pulled a wallet out of the box and displayed a driver’s license with the name “Cornelianus Oberson Crawford III” on it.

The delegation stood in stunned silence, so Val filled the void. With a knowing smile, she announced "If Clem wants to thank me, you know how to reach me. Just remember, stick to English, I don’t speak Gaelic.” She gave a two finger wave, then walked away toward the Citadel, followed by the crew who had loaded the boxes onto the wagon for her.

When she regained her ability to speak, Ruth muttered “Well, this changes things.” Then in a clear voice of command she announced “Alright, This just became probably the most precious cargo one of our caravans has ever transported. Brian, you’ll be staying with me, the rest of you, gather you things, you’ll be escorting Professor Everett to his final resting place. You can stop at Havendale to drop Glenn off along the way.”

***

The journey the Havendale took ten days. Some rich businessman had decided to build a small village there where his extended family could hide away from the rest of the world. None of them had made it through the early days of the trials, but after a couple of years a group of experienced survivors found his compound and put it to good use. It was well placed, nestled by a river deep within the mountains of eastern Tennessee. The secluded location provided safety from both walkers and raiders which, unlike Clem at Ericson, they chose to keep a secret from the world until the world found them. Their late emergence meant that they were the smallest of the towns in the Appalachian union, but they’d also managed to avoid the horrors the other settlements had faced. By the time the decided to reveal themselves, the walkers had nearly rotted away and Everett’s Rangers had already swept most of the raiders from the mountains.

The original buildings of the compound were for the most part still in good condition. Most had been constructed near the river cliff, no doubt for the view. They included six houses, a community hall, a church, a pool house with an indoor swimming pool, four wind turbines that still provided power, several solar panels, a boat house with an enclosed staircase connecting it to the upper portion of the settlement, and an airplane hangar. Many more structures had to be added to the town after they joined the union, as they were hit by a wave of settlers eager to make a new life for themselves in this idyllic location.

Looking over at the airfield next to the hangar, Glenn could even see an airplane of some sort, which appeared to be mostly intact. He felt a child-like curiosity well up within him. Whatever Clem had planned for him, he wanted to blow it off for a while so he could check out all the old world tech this place was still using. Most of all, he wanted to get a look at that plane to see how much of it was left.

One of the locals signaled for them to halt and the first words that came out his mouth were “Which one of you is Glenn?” A question his escort quickly answered. So much for sneaking off to take a look at the plane. The man told him “follow me” and led him to the church. Inside, Glenn was met by yet another astonishing sight, an intact stained glass window. He’d seen pictures of them before, but he’d never found one that hadn’t been shattered. This one was arranged in series of panels that depicted the Stations of the Cross. It faced south to catch as much sunlight as possible, which meant sacrificing the river view that the other buildings enjoyed, but it was well worth it. Glenn proceeded down the center aisle and climbed the steps to the pulpit for an unobstructed view of the window. From the pulpit he could see two doors to either side of him, one normal size, one smaller. He wondered what the smaller doors could be for.

Glenn was so transfixed by the colorful display that he was only barely aware of the man snoring in one of the pews. The local who had guided Glenn to the church tried to wake the man by calling out “Bob, he’s here, time to go” but the man just kept snoring. It wasn’t until the bells chimed that the man woke up. Glenn counted ten chimes. It was ten in the morning. He also noticed that while the sound was definitely originating from above him, he could also hear it coming from the small doors to either side of him, which answered his question; the small doors were for maintenance access to the automated bell towers. Each door had label. One was labeled Dostoyevsky while the other was labeled Chekhov. Apparently the businessman had decided to name his bells after his favorite Russian authors.

The man in the pew blinked the sleep out of his eyes, looked out one of the side windows for a moment then gestured toward Glenn. “Is that him?” The local nodded. Bob called out to Glenn “Alright, kid, grab your shit, we’re leaving.” He then stood and walked out.

Glenn trotted to catch up to him and let him know “Everything I own is already in my saddle bags. As soon as you mount up I’ll be ready to go.”

Bob smiled. “We won’t be going by horse. Grab your stuff and meet me by the hangar.”

Glenn’s eyes bulged. He looked back over at the plane that was sitting outside the hangar. It wasn’t just mostly intact, Glenn couldn’t spot a single flaw. Aasim had mentioned that The Commonwealth was watching The Provident from the air. Did the Appalachians have working aircraft too? Glenn ran to his horse, removed the saddlebags and slung them over his shoulder. He brushed his fingers through her mane and called out to his escort “It looks like I’ll be leaving her in your care for the rest of the journey. She loves apples, and I know you’ve got plenty in Everett, so if she’s a little fat and very happy the next time I see her, I won’t complain.” He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, then made his way to the hangar.

Bob was standing outside the plane examining one of the wings when Glenn arrived. He opened the door and pointed, telling Glenn “Put your bags back there and sit in this seat here.” Glenn did as he was told. “Don’t touch anything in front of your knees. Grab that strap, pull it here and lock it in place. The other strap will go here. If you freak out, do it on your side of the plane. If you make me lose control of the plane, we’ll end up a smoking crater. Got it?” Glenn nodded. Bob continued his preflight inspection before climbing in and pressing a button that started the engine. In no time, they were flying.

Glenn felt his heart racing, he was scared but not in a bad way. He was loving this. He watched out the window as the trees blurred together and the buildings began to look like toys. Eventually they got high enough that the mountains began to look like a topographic map. The higher they got, the more peaceful it seemed. Glenn had spent his 18th birthday on the road to Santee and all he got was a sunburn. He decided he’d consider this flight to be his belated birthday present from Clem.

After a while his heartrate returned to normal and the fear went away. Sadly, the thrill faded too, and it got kind of boring. Without warning, bob tipped his seat back and reached behind Glenn. He retrieved an egg timer, checked his map, wrote something on a clipboard, then set the egg timer and told Glenn “If this doesn’t wake me, flick my ear until I wake up.” He then lay back in his seat and pulled his hat over his face.

A little alarmed, Glenn asked “Um, what about the plane?”

“Just don’t touch the controls and we’ll be fine. These things are designed to level off and fly straight ahead if you take your hands off the controls.” He held up the timer and shook it to draw Glenn’s attention to it. “This’ll go off when we’re near Richmond.”

“We’re going to Richmond?”

“Not for long. We’re just going to take some pictures, then we’ll be heading to Everett.”

Glenn tensely awaited the chiming of the timer, being careful not to accidentally touch anything that might alter the plane’s course. When the alarm went off, Bob moved his hat to the top of his head and sat up. He looked around for a moment then pointed at a dense cluster of buildings. “That there is Richmond. Are you literate?” Glenn answered in the affirmative. Bob pointed to three of the eleven instruments on the panel in front of them and called out to Glenn “Air speed, altimeter, and compass. For now, watch the compass.” He moved the yoke and the plane banked to the left.

When they leveled off they were heading north. “We’re scouting the movements of The Provident army. Start scanning the ground for a whole lot of people.” After a few minutes, Glenn spotted something on the road and called it out. “Those are what’s left of The Provident’s gun trucks.” Bob explained. “When they ran out of fuel, they abandoned them, but not before rendering them useless. Keep watching. From up here people will look like ants.” After a few more minutes, Bob pulled out his map and made a mark with a grease pencil. Glenn spotted a low cloud of dust, then a bunch of ants, which he pointed out to Bob. “That’s the Everett Rangers under the command of Alvin Crawford. I’m going to drop down and lower our speed, you should be able to see the horses soon.” He descended from 8000 feet to 2000 feet, while the airspeed went from 120mph to 70mph, 20 above the red “stall” line. Glenn caught a glimpse of Bob’s map. He had marked “AC” just north of Richmond. He’d spotted them first, but wanted to let Glenn think he had. He adjusted his flight path so he would fly over the Rangers, banked slightly, pulled out a camera, and took a picture while he was directly above them. He then set the plane’s heading to the west and a little north. Looking at the map, Glenn could see that they were heading roughly toward Everett. After a few more minutes Bob made another mark on the map, this time it said “RJ”.

Glenn tapped the mark on the map. “OK, AC stands for AJ Crawford, what does RJ stand for?”

Bob passed the map to Glenn and adjusted their heading. “RJ stands for Richard Jaques. He’s the commander of The Provident’s forces.” He banked slightly, and grabbed his camera. Glenn watched through Bob’s window as they passed over the Provident forces and he snapped his picture, after which he set his course to the north again. It seemed to take him longer to find the third group than it did to find the first and second. When he did, he reached over and made a spot on the map while Glenn was holding it, then handed the pencil to Glenn and said “If you would, please, mark that one JC.” Glenn did as he was asked. Bob did his usual flyover to take his picture, then dropped his altitude to 500 feet and circled around the third group. “Have you spotted them yet?” Bob asked?

Glenn took a closer look. It didn’t take long to see what Bob was referring to. “They have the howitzers with them. Does that mean JC stands for Jessica Crawford?”

Bob answered while once more adjusting their course. “You are correct. Ever since The Provident ran out of fuel, they’ve been trying to make their way back north but AJs been harassing them, slowing their progress. We think Jaques is trying to get back to Alexandria. Jessi’s trying to get there first with a fresh force of volunteers they’ve gathered from throughout Appalachia. If she does, it’s a safe bet that this war will be over soon.” Glenn closed eyes, tilted his head back and let out a long sigh of relief. Bob continued “I thought you’d like the sound of that. You look like the weight of the world just slid off your shoulders. Go ahead and take it easy from here on out. Our next stop is Everett.”

***

“Wake up, we’re landing.” Glenn opened his eyes and to his astonishment couldn’t see a thing outside the cockpit. It was pitch black outside.

Nervously, Glenn asked “Uh, don’t you need to be able to see to land?”

Bob answered by simply turning the dome light off and pointing ahead. In the distance Glenn could see a cluster of lights. He glanced at the instruments to see that they were heading west at an altitude of 5500 feet with an airspeed of 80mph. As they got closer to the cluster of lights he could see a double line of lights to the south. He watched as Bob aligned the plane with the lines, gradually lowered the throttle, and pitched the plane back a little. Glenn gripped the frame of his seat and his vision tunneled on the runway lights ahead of him until at last they were on the ground and had rolled to a complete stop. The first flight of his life was over, and it couldn’t have gone better.

Bob flipped the dome light on and folded his map. Glenn Watched as Bob unbuckled his harness and replicated his actions to get free of his own. He took one last glance around the cockpit, noticing the altimeter said 4300 feet. Pointing at it he asked “Now that we’re on the ground, shouldn’t that say zero?”

Bob reopened his aviation chart and pointed out the black numbers and light blue lines. “These tell us the elevation. Everett’s here. See, the nearest mark says 4293?” Glenn nodded. Bob refolded his map, secured his camera and opened his door. Glenn then opened his door using the same lever he saw Bob use. After stepping out, he reached back and grabbed his saddle bags, which he carried over his shoulder. Looking around he could see that the airfield was just a dirt strip with some hastily strung lights set up to either side. With enough workers, they could have set this up in a day.

Glenn could hear footsteps crunching along the freshly raked dirt. Looking around, he spotted several figures approaching, but with the lights behind them he couldn’t tell who they were. One squeaked “That was so cool! When do I get to go up?” making it easy to identify him as Willy.

Bob circled around to Glenn’s side of the plane and asked “You got my fuel?”

The locals got close enough that Glenn could see Willy was accompanied by six people who wore badges that identified them as city guards and two who were wearing tool belts. Willy stammered in reply “Uh, about that. This was kind of short notice. We just finished your airstrip today. What you’re asking for, we don’t just keep it on hand, it takes time and some pretty specialized equipment to distil. We’ve got some locals outside of town we think might be able to help us with that but we haven’t heard back from them yet. Sorry.”

“You’re Willy, right, one of the leaders here? You know what I’ve been doing for you, every day, for the past two months, right?” Bob asked.

Willy did not seem confident in his answer “I, uh, think so. Just in case, could you remind me again?”

Bob snarked “You think you’re Willy? You’re not sure who you are?”

Glenn chimed in “He’s definitely Willy. This is just the way he talks. Look, Willy, I think what he’s getting at is that he’ll lose track of The Provident army if he’s stuck on the ground for too long. But, Bob, if he doesn’t have your fuel, he doesn’t have it.”

Bob shrugged his shoulders and turned back to the plane, announcing “I suppose this gives me more time to set up the dark room” He retrieved a box from under the fuselage and handed it to one of the tool carrying locals, then grabbed a satchel that he slung over his shoulder. “You do at least have a dark room ready for me, dontcha?”

“Of course!” came Willy’s answer. Bob gestured for him to lead on. The guards remained with the plane, while Willy led Glenn, Bob, and the other two locals to the road, then to the south gate. Once at the gate, it occurred to Glenn where the airfield had been set up. When he’d left for Santee, there had been farms on that land. He’d have to check it out during the daytime to see what’d happened to the rest of the farmland around the airstrip, so he could tell if the airfield was going to be a permanent fixture or not.

“You know how to get to Omar’s from here, right?” asked Willy.

“I do.” Glenn felt like he’d spent too much time there. Omar’s inn was beginning to feel too much like his new home.

“Well, I’m gonna get our new friend here set up to develop his pictures. Once that fuel gets here, we’ll send someone for you and Ruby. Oh, I forgot to mention. Clem sent a message, now she needs Ruby too, not just you. Well, catch you later, Glenn!” And with that, Glenn found himself alone, wandering the streets of Everett.

He wasn’t tired, he’d slept on the plane, and he still hadn’t received an explanation as to why Clem needed him, or even where she was. Well, since Ruby was her friend, maybe she’d know. Glenn asked a few of the guards where he could find Ruby. A few told him where her home was, others told him where to find her clinic. He tried her home first but was met by her neighbors, who informed him that both she and Aasim regularly worked long hours. So he made his way to her clinic. The reception area was empty. The majority of the staff must have gone home for the night, but he could still hear plenty of voices coming from the back. He looked down the hallway behind the reception desk and called out “hello” but got no reply, so he cautiously began to proceed down the hall.

He periodically saw staff members, quickly moving from one room to the next, but it took them a while to notice him. One eventually stopped and asked “You here to see one of the patients?”

Cautiously, Glenn replied “I’m looking for Ruby.”

The woman replied “Upstairs, room six. Stairs are over there” She pointed briefly, then hurried into a nearby room.

Glenn climbed the stairs and found himself in the second floor hallway, where he immediately recognized Ruby’s distinct Arkansas drawl coming from one of the rooms. She was reassuring someone, repeatedly saying things like “you’re doin’ good.” and “just a little more” Glenn followed the voice, and stopped when he saw a door with the number six posted next to it. There were chairs in the hall, so he decided to take a seat and wait until Ruby was done with her patient. He could hear a wet thunk followed by Ruby saying, “There, that’s the last of those. Just gonna slather some of this on there… oh, sorry, I think I got some in yer eye.”

“It’s alright ma’am. The eye’s dead, I can’t feel it anymore. Same with the right arm. It’s my back and my left hand where I can feel it, but you needn’t concern yourself about that, ma’am. All I need is for you to do fix me up ASAP so I can get back in the fight.” Glenn recognized her patient’s voice too. It took him a moment to remember her name. Jessi had called her Ranger Allen. She was the Ranger who’d climbed to the roof of a collapsing building to rescue the coachmen and she’d also guided him around the Ranger’s camp outside of Johnstown. Glenn stood, and hesitantly peered around the doorframe. “Can I help you, sir?” Came her immediate response to his presence.

“Uh, I was looking for Ruby.” He replied, somewhat embarrassed that he let his curiosity get the better of him.

Without a hint of humor to her voice, she told Ruby “Ma’am, if you have business to attend to, I can wait.” Ruby turned and glared at Glenn, and in doing so gave him a clear view of what she was doing. Ranger Allen was sitting in a chair next to the bed with Ruby standing in front of her. A table full of dressing supplies was next to them while a bucket full of wet yellow and red bandages sat on the floor beside them. The sleeve of Ranger Allen’s gown was folded and pinned just above where her right elbow would have been, while three of the fingers on her left hand were bandaged together. Ruby had a glistening salve on her hand which she’d been in the process of applying to the right side of the Ranger’s face, which had been burned severely. Her right ear was gone, her right eye was blackened and no longer had lids, and her nose had been amputated. There was a distinct line starting between her mouth and nose that ran under her ear, under which the burns were less severe. Glenn was curious to know what had happened but was afraid to ask.

“Corrie, you’re my only concern at the moment” reassured Ruby, who then glared at Glenn and declared “Glenn can wait outside.” Glenn took the hint and sat back down, after which he heard Ruby call out again “Outside the building, Glenn. I’ll come find you when I’m done.” Glenn proceeded to leave the building.

He sat down on a nearby bench and looked up at the stars but found there didn’t seem to be as many as usual. He could find some of the brighter stars, like Orion’s belt, but the Milky Way was gone. After a few minutes of searching, he was brought back down to earth by Ruby asking “What’s that face about?”

“I seem to have lost a few stars.” He answered sheepishly.

“It’s the lights” she explained “Your eyes’ve adjusted to the city lights, which from here are a lot brighter than most of the stars. It’s just a matter of perspective. If you go outside the city a ways, your eyes will adjust back to the lower light and you’ll be able to see ‘em again.” She sat down next to him, slumped back and sighed. “I didn’t mean to snap at you in there. It’s just these past few months have been hard. I barely had time to mourn my son before I found myself inundated with wounded soldiers dependin’ on me to keep ‘em alive… I run a clinic, not a trauma center. I’m used to dealing with colds and booboos, not bullets and burns. We’ve had lots of doctors and nurses here over the years who taught me about patchin’ people up, and I’ve got my little medical library in my office, but It takes a lot more than just pluggin’ holes to keep folks alive. These are strong, proud people, Glenn. They’re used to everyone relyin’ on ‘em, and now they find themselves in a position where they have to rely on others for just about everythin’. It’s a hard pill to swallow, and some just plain refuse to take it. I’ve had a couple of ‘em go home to their families from here, only to call it quits for good. I don’t want to go through that again Glenn. I don’t want to go to any more funerals, but I don’t know how to stop it. You saw Corrie, you heard her. She thinks when she’s done here she’s goin’ back to the war. She says they need her, that the longer she’s here, the more Rangers we’ll lose without her to provide overwatch for ‘em, and you know what, the other Rangers agree. They all say they felt safer when they knew she was nearby providin’ cover for ‘em. But Glenn, she’s got one eye, one arm, and only two good fingers on the hand she has left. How well do you think she can handle a rifle like that? Reality hasn’t set in yet, and when it does, it’s gonna hit her like a ton-of-bricks and I’m afraid of what it’ll do to her. Every shrouded body that returns to town, every fresh grave she sees, she’s gonna blame herself. I saw it with Clem after she lost her leg, but she at least had AJ to keep her grounded. Corrie’s family aren’t dependent on her, she just has her parents and her little brother. To make things worse they’ve stopped coming to visit. Back when they did, they’d just look at her, start cryin’, and leave. If Clem were in town, I’d sick her on ‘em. Have the boss pay ‘em a visit, let ‘em know how much Corrie needs ‘em, and tell ‘em to get their asses in here… But Clem ain’t here, and to make things worse she’s not feelin’ so well so she expects me to drop everythin’ and come fix her up because she doesn’t trust The Commonwealth’s doctors. As if I can leave all of this?... Anyway, sorry, I’m just frustrated and ramblin’. You were lookin’ for me for somethin’, weren’t ya?”

She’d already answered most of his questions. They were going to The Commonwealth and Clem needed Ruby because she was sick. He only had one question left unanswered. “Clem pulled me out of Santee because she needed me urgently. Any idea why?”

Ruby shrugged “I’m not all that sure why she needs me, let alone you. We just got a message earlier today that she was sick and she wanted me there when The Commonwealth doctors examined her, so when you stopped here I was supposed to join you. I assume we’re leaving in the mornin’?”

It was Glenn’s turn to shrug “It just depends on when the fuel gets delivered I guess.”

Ruby looked surprised “Fuel? You got a car up ‘n runnin’?”

She didn’t know about the plane? How fast had Willy built that airfield? “Not a car, we’ve got an airplane waiting for us. Willy said someone outside of town is distilling fuel for us.”

Ruby turned pale “Plane!... Oh Clem is gonna owe me for this. I’ve only flown once in my life, it was as kid on my way here, and I blew chunks the whole time we were up there. And what’s this about distillin’ fuel? They’re not runnin’ it on ethanol are they?” Again, Glenn shrugged. Ruby continued “Moonshine! They’re runnin a plane on moonshine! I’m trustin’ my life to fuel made by the O’Brien clan? If we crash and die because she trusted those hair brain idiots, I’m gonna kill Clem.”

Glenn feigned concern. “I take it they’re not all that reliable, so chances are we won’t be leaving in the morning?”

Ruby shot back “If you ask me I’d say they’ve sampled way too much of their own product. They’re Alice’s family but Jessi won’t even talk to ‘em if that tells you anything about what they’re like. Why, that lot’s flakier than a snowstorm. It wouldn’t surprise me if we could ride to The Commonwealth faster than they can deliver on that fuel… and we’d be a damn sight safer if we did!”

The news couldn’t make Glenn happier. After a month on the road, he’d finally get a few days off. He stood and announced “Well, it looks like I’m gonna be here a while. I better find something to keep myself occupied while I wait.” In the back of his mind he was thinking he’d just spend the whole time in bed.

He started to walk toward Omar’s but Ruby called to him. “I can think of something. You’re a carpenter, right?”

Glenn stopped and turned back to confirm “That I am… Well, a journeyman at least.”

Ruby continued “Louis’s expedition to the prosthetics manufacturer brought back tons of leg parts but not much in the way of arms. I’ve seen the manuals they brought back with the legs, they have plenty of diagrams of various arms too. I figure you could probably get together with Hal and between the two of you start manufacturin’ some based on those old world designs, startin’ with one for Corrie. She’s got about three weeks to go before her stump is healed enough to start workin’ with a prosthetic. So if you can, see if you can have somethin’ for her by then. While you’re at it, since Clem ain’t around right now, maybe you can put that name of yours to use and see if you can get her family back in here. Let ‘em know how much she needs ‘em right now.”

A little stunned by the sudden feeling of responsibility, Glenn came back with “I’ll see what I can do.”

***

He hadn’t slept since he spoke to Ruby. He spent the night laying awake, thinking about what Ruby had said and what he had seen. He’d stopped by the prosthetics workshop on the way back to the inn and looked through the documents for the diagrams of arms. He’d started the night plotting how he could make some of them and what sort of metal parts he’d have to ask Hal for, but then his mind turned to Ranger Allen’s unbandaged face, and her missing nose. He hadn’t seen any prosthetic noses in the book and wondered what it would take to go about making one of them. Thoughts of arms and noses kept rattling around in his head until sunlight crept through his window. They stayed with him, distracting him as he got dressed and as he left the inn, causing him to misalign the buttons on his flannel shirt. Still distracted, he walked out, right past Omar, without stopping for breakfast.

Everett was big but the people who lived there were close nit, so it was no surprise that the first person Glenn asked was able to tell him where each member of the Allen family lived. All he really needed to know was where her parents lived, but it didn’t hurt to know that she had a home just down the street from them and that her brother was a newlywed who’d moved in with his wife a few blocks away.

Like Clem’s house, her parents’ home was smaller than the homes he was used to seeing in Alexandria. He had no clue what to say to them, so he just knocked and hoped it would come to him. When a man answered, Glenn announced “Hi, I’m Glenn Grimes. Ruby asked me to talk to you about your daughter.” A look of alarm immediately appeared on the man’s face and Glenn realized they must have thought it was bad news. “She’s OK. I’m, uh, a carpenter. Ruby asked me to help out, to see if I could make a prosthetic for her. I was hoping to learn more about what her routine is like, to give me a better idea of what sort of appliance she’ll need. I figured you’d be able to let me into her place, I hear it’s just a few doors down?” Way-to-go Glenn, taking yourself off topic right from the start...

The man stepped back “Um, come-on-in... Hon, this is Glenn Grimes. He’s helping out with Corrina.”

The woman at the table dabbed at her mouth with a cloth. Glenn had interrupted their breakfast. “Grimes? You know there was a famous Sheriff by the name of Rick Grimes. Any relation?” she asked.

Glenn took a deep breath. Here goes. “He’s my grandpa ma’am. I, uh, never met him. I had to hear about him the way everyone else does. Just stories, other peoples’ recollections, that sort of thing.”

They both looked at his hip, at the pistol he wore there just to be polite to his Appalachian hosts. Mrs. Allen spoke first “Is that his gun?”

Glenn patted it “Nah, I actually don’t know where his gun ended up. This was a gift from Clementine.” That was name drop number two. He felt like an ass for doing it but it did seem to get their attention.

They looked at each other, then Mr. Allen asked “You said you were here for Corrina…”

Glenn cut in before Mr. Allen could finish his question “That I am. She’s making incredible progress. Well, you must know that better than anyone. You get to see her every day, and I just met her yesterday, but to hear Ruby and the other Rangers talk about her, she seems like a remarkable woman. All I heard her talk about were her plans for when she recovers.” Guilt bomb dropped, and without lying, as far as he could tell. Now to see if it worked.

Her father averted his gaze “We, uh, haven’t gone in to see her for a while.”

Her mother’s eyes grew distant as she uttered “I just… I can’t see her like that.”

Now for the coup degras. “Oh, I would have thought this would be when you’d want to see her the most. I mean she’s gotta be feeling pretty vulnerable right now, I figured she’d need all the family support she could get. Still, she might be able to make it on her own. Then again, we thought the same about the others too, the ones who took their own lives. Did you know any of them… or maybe their families?”

He may have gone too far. Both her parents looked ashen. Her mom started to breath heavily, and her father swallowed hard before firmly saying “She won’t be alone, she’ll be staying with us until she adapts to… Yes, we knew them, alright? And for God’s sakes, boy, they were not alone… I’ll show you to her room.” Glenn wished he’d had the sense to bring a tape measure. He at least had a pencil with him. He pulled a loose thread off his shirt tail and pretended to use it to take measurements while marking on it with the pencil and hoping her parents knew nothing about carpentry. He measured door handles, cabinets, anything he could think of that she might want to use with her right hand. When he was done, he thanked them and wished them a speedy recovery for their daughter. As he left he wondered if the good karma he scored by helping Corrina outweighed the bad karma he’d acquired for deceiving and scaring her parents.

On his way back to the prosthetics shack he was intercepted by one of the city guards “Mr. Grimes, the plane’s ready. It’s time to go.” Glenn’s heart sank. So much for getting some time off. He returned to Omar’s inn to retrieve his saddlebags, then headed to the airfield.

In the daylight he could see that so far the airstrip was just a long, leveled patch of dirt, but all of the structures on the farms whose land it had been built on had been demolished. This airstrip may be temporary but there would eventually be a permanent airport here. Bob was standing on a stepladder pouring the contents of a jug into the wing while Cade stood below holding another jug to pass to him. Off to the side was a wagon full of more jugs. Ruby was seated in the plane, holding the door open for him. Willy had already claimed the front passenger seat, so Glenn slid in next to Ruby after securing his saddlebags next to her satchel. Once Bob opened his door and saw where Willy was seated, he ordered Willy and Glenn to trade seats. His reason became clear once they were airborne, as Bob spent much of the flight teaching Glenn how to fly the plane, even allowing him to adjust their heading a few times.

The plane had originally been designed to seat six, with three rows of two seats each, but the third row on this plane had been replaced by a large fuel tank. Bob would eventually explain that this particular plane had been manufactured that way. It had been part of a series of prototype planes that were offshoots of existing models with slight variations that would allow them to run on ethanol. One of the issues with ethanol was that it took more gallons of ethanol to travel a given distance than a petroleum based fuel, so the extra fuel tank was added to extend the plane’s range. It also wouldn’t run on just any old booze. The fuel had to be at least 95% ethanol.

Upon approach to The Commonwealth, Bob resumed control of his craft. He explained what he was doing but he wasn’t about to allow Glenn to attempt a landing just yet. Glenn took one last look at Bob’s chart before folding it up. The airfield he was headed to was labeled “Cincinnati Lunken (LUK)”. When they touched down and disembarked, Glenn found himself facing an old world city, but these weren’t ruins like the ones he’d seen in DC. This city had been reclaimed by The Commonwealth. It was alive with activity.

“Grab your stuff” Bob announced, “We’re on foot from here.” He slung a stack of buckskin coats over his shoulder, then led them into the city, periodically stopping to talk to guards dressed in white armor. They directed him to the University of Cincinnati, where some of the locals directed them to the lecture hall where Clementine was speaking.

They arrived to find the crowd slowly dispersing, with Clem still standing near the podium, shaking hands and chatting with a few members of the audience who had lingered after she’d finished her speech. Four of the white clad guards stood behind her. Bob let it be known “I got you to her. I’m off, gotta drop these souvenirs off with my kids, then it’s back to Virginia for today’s recon. See ya when I see ya.”

Ruby pushed her way through the crowd, followed closely by Willy, with Glenn not too far behind them. Despite being the furthest from her, Glenn was the first one Clem spotted. Being nearly a foot taller than Ruby and Willy probably had something to do with it. She called out to him and asked what was left of the crowd to make way. As they approached, she thanked the crowd for coming and let them know that now that her companions had arrived, it was time for her to go. Ruby got to her first and received a big hug from Clem. Clem kept Willy at arm’s length, smiling and patting him on the shoulder as she greeted him, then she turned to Glenn and gave him as big a hug as the one she gave Ruby. As she hugged him, Glenn noticed an odd scent. It was like something wet had been left to sit in a cool dark place to rot. As her cheek touched his, he could feel it was damp with sweat. When she released him from the hug and he could see her face, she was pale, and her eyes were bloodshot. She smiled and grabbed his forearm, saying “C’mon, lets get going.” She held onto him as they walked toward the exit, putting her weight on his arm. She was trying hard to hide her limp. Glenn remembered what she had showed him about holding his arm like a cane handle, and subtly locked his elbow to his side with his forearm held level for her.

One of the guards had gone ahead to summon her coach, which was waiting for them when they exited the building. Glenn helped her to her seat, and once they were moving, Ruby let it be known “I can smell the necrosis, Clem. Why’d you let it get this bad?”

Clem slumped back in her seat and motioned for Ruby to keep her voice down. In a voice just above a whisper, she mused “I couldn’t stop, not now. There’s too much at stake.”

Ruby hissed in a loud a loud whisper “What? What could be worth losing the rest of your leg over?”

Clem raised her hand to gesture around her “This. The Commonwealth. All of it.”

Ruby rolled her eyes “I’m sure you could negotiate an alliance sitting down! You should’ve been letting it heal from the moment you noticed something was up.”

Clem shook her head “It’s not an alliance. It’s a coup. The people of The Commonwealth just overthrew their government and guess who they’re calling for to take its place.” She looked over at Glenn “I can thank your grandfather for that. They’re looking for another Rick to clean up the corruption that’s set in since they lost him. From what they’ve been telling me, he was only half done when he was killed. He got rid of the caste system but he didn’t get a say in what replaced it, so an oligarchy took hold, with basically the same people on top as the old system. The people here are looking for someone to finish what he started, and it just so happened that there’s another living legend with a reputation for helping people who was living a little bit to the east… If they think I’m the only one who can save them, who am I to turn them down?”

Ruby shook her head in disbelief. “Why on earth would they think of you at a time like this?”

Clem smiled “Ohhh, they may have had a little help. A few teachers who equated me to Rick. A few civic leaders who rallied the masses. A few officers who convinced their military to side with the people against the oligarchy when the time was right. Add an expansionist neighbor to bring things to a boil and voila… Conquest by subterfuge.”

Ruby looked shocked. “Spies!” she hissed. “You took down The Commonwealth with just a bunch of spies?”

Clem looked up and smiled as she answered “Yeah, we did! And without firing a shot.”

Glenn had to ask “How long have you been planning this?”

She turned her gaze toward him and still grinning answered “Oh, about twenty years… Not the taking over part, just the destabilizing them part. It was meant to be a defensive move if they ever attacked us. If you’d told me twenty years ago I would pull this off, annexing The Commonwealth, I would’ve thought you were nuts. I’m still not sure I believe it.”

The carriage entered a structure with a roadway built into it. The sign above the entrance said “University of Cincinnati Medical Center”. Clem shushed them as the carriage slowed to a halt. “We’re here, gotta watch what we say.” They disembarked next to a door that led into one of the buildings that was part of the hospital complex. Clem stopped Willy and motioned for him to get back in the carriage “I need you to find your Commonwealth counterparts and make arrangements for them to extend their railroad to Everett. We’ll also need a shipment of asphalt so you can pave our new airfield… I found out that they were already working on a trade deal for petroleum with The Western Alliance. They’ve managed to get a refinery up and running in Richmond California. If can we start getting regular gas shipments from them, The Commonwealth’s got a lot more planes we’ll be able to get in the air. Everett will need to be ready to receive the traffic.” Willy nodded and got back in the carriage. Clem called up to the coachmen “Come back for us after you’ve dropped him off, we shouldn’t be here too long.”

As the carriage pulled away, Clem grabbed Glenn’s arm and began to hobble toward the door. Once inside, she placed her other arm on Ruby’s shoulder for further support. “How’d it happen?” Ruby asked. Clem shushed her. “I meant the wound.”

“Oh, that.” Clem replied, her voice straining from the effort of hobbling down the hall. “I don’t really know. I had a busy day, I didn’t notice it was hurting until it was too late. When I took the sleeve off there was a sore there. I must have had a clump in the sleeve that rubbed on that spot. Y’know, normally I feel when something’s wrong right away and fix it. I guess I was just too excited about what was going on to notice. I hoped if I watched it, maybe padded around it, it would get better, but it just kept getting worse.”

Ruby followed up with “How long has this been goin on?”

Sounding a bit embarrassed, Clem answered “About a week.” She then mused “Just one more reason to look forward to getting our hands on some petroleum; so we can make some neoprene and I can dump these moleskin sleeves.”

One of the guards went ahead and returned with a man in a long white coat who motioned toward one of the rooms labeled “Exam room 3” and bid them “This way please.”

As they entered the room, Ruby led them to the exam table in the middle of the room. Clem stopped to remove her coat, which she handed to Glenn, before scooting onto the table. Glenn scanned the room and found a hook to hang the coat on while Ruby pulled a file from her satchel, which she handed to the man in the white coat. “We used to have a real doctor in Everett, she started our records system. She taught me what she could. I’ve been trying to keep them up to date ever since she passed on.”

The man spoke as he scanned the file. “Well, luckily for you, my parents were both doctors. So I’ve had plenty of training. Unluckily for me, that left my family in a position of prominence when the caste system was abolished. Which, thanks to your mob out there, means I’ll probably have noose around my neck in the next few days.” He set the file on the counter and looked Clementine in the eye. “So, why should I help you?”

Clem rolled her eyes. “My mom was a doctor, my dad was an engineer. Does that mean they’ll be coming after me next?” She paused for a reply, then continued. “The mob is after the corrupt assholes who made their lives hell. If you didn’t use your position to take to take advantage of them, I don’t think they’ll want lose a trained doctor. There aren’t enough of you left.” Clem reached down and began to roll up her left pant leg.

The man countered “I’ve charged for my services. Some felt my prices were unfair. What’s to stop them from saying I was taking advantage of them by charging them for care they needed to stay alive?”

Clem motioned for Glenn to help her with her prosthetic. “Did you overcharge them? Were they having to choose between bankruptcy or death? Were there any who died because they just couldn’t come up with the money to pay you?”

The man scowled at her. “I had to make a living.”

Glenn held onto the prosthetic as Clem disconnected it from the harness. She chided the man “I’ll take that as a yes. You know how I made my living after the change? Any way I could. When I was with a group, I did whatever jobs they wanted me to. When I was on my own, I scavenged and I hunted. All too often, though, my survival came down to stealing and killing… But when I look back at all the people I killed, I have to be honest with myself, it wasn’t always about survival. I wasn’t always justified. Some of them I killed because I was mad or because they were between me and whatever I was after… like the people at McCarrol Ranch who stood between me and AJ. So, the way I see it, there isn’t much difference between you and me, except that when my time comes, I’ll know I had it coming.”

The man looked enraged and turned toward the door, but the guard was blocking his path. Clem disconnected the last strap, freeing the prosthetic for Glenn to remove it. He took it over to the counter and set it next to the file while Ruby stepped up to examine Clementine’s stump. She gingerly removed the moleskin sleeve, inhaling sharply through her teeth as she neared the end. A trail of green pus stretched between a blackened wound and the sleeve as she slowly pulled it off. Once it was open to air, the stench became overpowering.

“Aww Clem, that… that’s bad” Ruby exclaimed.

The man in the white coat raised his hand to his mouth. “That’s going to need to be debrided and you’ll need a course of antibiotics. I can clean it out for you but it’s gonna cost you. If I help you, I expect to be protected from the mob. That’s the deal.”

Clem leaned back on her elbows and asked “Do you have the tools and antibiotics on hand here?”

The man pulled a wrapped object from the cupboard “I have the I&D tray here. I’d prescribe Cephalexin and Metronidazole. Our pharmacy can compound them. If we have a deal, I’ll send the nurse to get them started.”

Clem turned to the guard. “Go ahead and send the nurse to the pharmacy… and take him with you. Ruby can do the rest.” The man in the white coat looked confused for a moment, then the guard grabbed him and shoved him into the hall, closing the door behind them.

Ruby gave Clem a look of dismay. “This is gonna hurt, you know. You probably should’ve asked about somethin’ for pain before you ejected the doctor.”

With a hint of alarm, Clem uttered “Oh, um, is there anything in those cabinets?”

Ruby did a quick search and returned with a vial, a syringe, a roll of gauze, and a bottle of water. “They have Lidocaine. It’s no much. Glenn could chase down the nurse to see if they have some Laudanum. Heck, if they have a compounding pharmacy on site, they might even have some Morphine.”

Clem let out a quick “No! No Laudanum, no Morphine. The Lidocaine will do.”

Ruby sighed and began drawing Lidocaine into the syringe. “You’re the boss, but I gotta say, I think you’re bein’ silly. One dose ain’t gonna get you hooked.”

Clem lay back on the table and grabbed the frame to brace herself for the pain. “It’s not worth the risk.”

Ruby smirked as she began to give a series of small injections around the wound. “The woman who just stared down two armies is afraid of a shot of Morphine?” The pressure of the injections caused more pus to ooze from the wound. Glenn looked away, not wanting to see any more, and found that his gaze had landed on the open file the doctor had left on the counter. It contained Clementine’s medical records.

Clem and Ruby continued their banter while Glenn allowed himself to be distracted from Ruby’s grim task by what he saw on the top page. He recognized about half of the words as English, the rest were either acronyms or medicalese. Despite being lost in the confusing jumble of letters, his mind registered the sound of his name being called, and he snapped back reality. “Find anything good in there?” Clem asked.

Glenn quickly shut the file and exclaimed “Guh-uh, sorry,” then looked back toward Clem, which he immediately regretted as he glimpsed Ruby carefully cutting away at the blackened flesh.

Through gritted teeth Clem clarified “No, I mean, this hurts like fucking hell, did you find anything in there that might get my mind off it?”

Glenn opened the file back to the page it had been open to before. “Oh, um, well I don’t really understand most of it.”

“I do.” Ruby interjected. “Just start readin’, if you need anything explained, I’ll jump in… If that’s really what you want, Clem?”

Clem grimaced “Sure… just someone do something.”

Glenn started reading. “Uhhhh, Demographics: Last name: it’s just a blank with a line drawn through it. First name: Clementine. Middle initial: it’s blank too. DoB: October 26, 1994.” Glenn paused to do the math. “That would make you fifty-one?”

Clem grunted before answering “I guess. I sure hope this gets more interesting soon.”

Glenn kept reading “Sex: Female. Race: Black. Religion: None. Next section: Family Hx. What’s Hx?”

“History” Ruby answered. “Lets get this out of the way: Sx means ‘symptoms’, Tx means ‘treatment’, Rx means ‘medication’, a C with a line over it means ‘with’, an S with a line over it means ‘without’, an A with a line over it means ‘before’, a P with a line over it means ‘after’, an L with a circle around it means ‘left’, an R with a circle means ‘right’, a B with a circle means ‘both’, and a triangle means ‘change’.”

He hoped he could remember all of that. “Family history: Mother: deceased-bitten. Father: deceased-bitten. Siblings: none. Children: Gravida 1 Para 1. 1 son-adopted, healthy… What do gravida and para mean?”

Ruby looked at Clem. Clem answered “It means AJ almost had a sister… Well, this is working, I’m not thinking about my leg…I’m beginning to worry I might regret this…”

Ruby clarified “Gravida means pregnancies. Para means pregnancies that go more than twenty weeks.”

Glenn took a deep breath, then carried on. “Still under family history: Diabetes: none. Heart disease: none. Cancer: none. Holy crap you have a healthy family. Mental health: PGF displayed narcissistic traits. What’s PGF?”

Clem scowled. “Paternal grandfather. My grampa Obe was a cruel bastard. Before the change he never cared who he screwed over to make a profit. After the change… It was like he thought he was Vlad the Impaler… What else you got in there?”

Glenn briefly furrowed his brow at the description of her grandfather, then resumed reading. “Social history: Marital status: Widowed x2. Occupation: Teacher, Civic Leader. Habits: ETOH: sober since 2021. Tobacco: none. Substances of Abuse: None. Caffeine: in quotes ‘Whenever I can get my hands on it’…” Glenn paused and looked over at Ruby “I’m guessing ETOH stands for alcohol?” Ruby nodded. Glenn continued “Sexual Activity: and this is in quotes too, ‘None of your damn business’. OK then, moving on; Health history. 2005-animal bite left forearm, self-sutured. 2005-GSW left distal subclavian.”

Ruby cut in “That means she got shot in the shoulder but it missed the bone.”

Glenn read the next line “2006 MVA with TBI”

Ruby translated “She had a car crash and bonked her head”

Glenn proceeded “2011, same thing.”

This time Clem answered “Yeah, that’s why they don’t let me drive anymore.”

Glenn read on “2011 bitten, left lower leg. LBKA performed in field.”

Clem contributed “That’s what’s become an issue again today; left below the knee amputation. AJ cut it off with an axe after I got bit. We’d been living on the road before that, always moving. It was a shock to his system to have to settle down in one place after that.”

Ruby looked at her sideways. “AJ seemed happy as a clam to finally have a home. It was you, miss ‘tired of runnin’’, who had trouble adjustin’. You were like a mustang caught in a pen for the first year or so. That’s why we kept bringing you all them books, they seemed like the only thing that kept you level.” She turned to Glenn. “You know that workshop next to Clem’s house. It used to be a library. She went through all the books in the school while she was recoverin’ so we had to trade for more. We traded for so many that by the time she got to the acceptance phase; we’d nearly filled the school’s basement full of books. We kinda wanted to use that basement for other things, so when it came time to build her a house, we put up the library and our schoolhouse next to it.”

“Whatcha got next?” Clem prompted.

Glenn continued. “2011 PTSD, severe.” He already knew what that one meant. “2020-MDD. 2021-ETOH abuse. 2021-Multiple diffuse laceration after altercation.”

This time Ruby explained “Major Depressive Disorder. After Vi was killed, Clem fell into a deep funk and started drinkin’. Turns out she’s a mean drunk. Started pickin’ fights, usually with the biggest feller she could find. If you ask me, she blamed herself for Vi’s death and at some level felt she needed to be punished for it, so she was tryin’ to get herself beat up. Problem is, Clem bein’ Clem and all, it didn’t matter who she went up against, she just doesn’t know how to lose. They’d end up spendin’ some quality time with me while Clem would find herself soberin’ up in one of Molly’s cells. And let me tell you, that peg-leg of hers, it could do some damage. I found myself having to set a lot of broken legs and you don’t even wanna know what that thing could do to a foot when she’d stomp on it. Hey, Clem, what was that dumb line you’d use to call ‘em out?”

Clem squeezed her eyes and blushed with embarrassment before answering “Did you hear the one about the one-legged-woman in the ass kicking contest? Well, you’re about to be the punchline.”

Ruby smirked, “Yep, that was it. She kept that up until finally she ended up on the wrong end of things. You see, one of the things about all them stories about her is, occasionally some idjit would get it in their head that they could make a name for themselves by bein the one to plant ole Clem here in the ground. They’d show up in town lookin’ for her, some were even dumb enough to brag they was gonna kill her. None of ‘em really knew what she looked like since those stories were short on a description of her, other than she wore a baseball cap, so most of ‘em just pictured the biggest, toughest lookin’ gal they could imagine and planted a hat on her head. That ain’t Clem. They’d walk right up to her, ask her where they could find Clementine, and she’d lead them straight to Molly and her deputies, who’d straighten ‘em out right quick. That is, until she started drinking. Then she wouldn’t back down from no one. After she put a couple of them in the ground herself, Molly confiscated her pistol, thinking that even drunk she’d have the sense to not take ‘em on unarmed. Nope. The next feller who came looking for her, Clem just pulled out her knife and told him to bring it. Not wanting to smirch his reputation, since building his rep was the whole point of him bein’ there, he left his pistol holstered and drew his knife too. Well, this feller knew what he was doin’, and Clem being blind drunk didn’t help much. He sliced her up pretty bad and sent her reelin’. Louis stepped in between ‘em to keep him from finishing her off but the guy sliced him up too. Luckily Molly showed up and put a stop to it before that asshole could end ‘em both. It felt like it took forever to stitch the two of ‘em up. That’s when Louis and AJ convinced her she needed to quit drinkin’. They stayed with her day and night until she finished detoxin’.”

Clem added “You could’ve warned me not to stop all at once. DTs sucked. Jessi was the one who was with me when I started seizing. I think it left her scarred for life.”

Ruby cocked her head “Oh, on the list of things that’ve left that girl messed up, I think watchin’ you have a seizure ranks pretty low.” She then turned to her supply tray and added “I’m done cuttin’ out the eschar, by the way. I’m gonna clean it out a bit, then dress it. This might feel a little cold.”

Clem pulled the collar of her sweater to the side to reveal a little bit of the black vest underneath it. “That night’s also why Louis gave me this. He wouldn’t say what he had to trade for it, just that it was a lot.”

Glenn gave a half smile “Well, that story explains the next thing listed here. 2021-Delerium Tremens. After that we’ve got 2023-Plecenta Abruption with…” Glenn’s heart sank as he read the next part and realized what this entry meant, “fetal death at 31 weeks.”

All were silent for a moment, then Ruby spoke “The next entry will be postpartum depression. It’s hormone related and can happen even when everything goes right. Clem was already predisposed to depression, add hormones and the loss of her baby to the mix, and well, we couldn’t get Clem to get out of bed or hardly even speak for weeks. Louis was beside himself, scared he was gonna lose Clem too. Clem’s been through a lot and always bounced back, but when she went quiet on us, we feared this was it, it’d all finally caught up with her. Louis started commin’ up with all sorts of schemes to try and cheer her up. Nothing worked. He got desperate, started grasping at straws, rememberin’ vague things Clem’d said she’d wanted. One of them was to be able to run again, so he mounted an expedition to a prosthetics manufacturer in Morgantown. It was near the end of the trials, most of the walkers had rotted off, so we’d gotten complacent while travelin’ outside the walls, watchin’ more for the livin’ than the dead. Apparently there’d been some big fight around that area at some point, and the winners just left the losers behind without finishing them off. Louis wasn’t expecting to run into fresh walkers. They walked right into a buildin’ full of ‘em. He and two of his team were killed before they got things under control. The survivors brought back his body, along with a couple wagon loads of high end prosthetic parts.”

Clem’s eyes were fixed on the ceiling. In a weak voice she declared “Well, this worked. I can’t feel a thing. There’s nothing like reliving your most painful memories to leave you feeling numb all over. Are we done yet?” Considering Clem’s state of mind at this point, Glenn figured it was best not to ask if babies turn when they’re stillborn.

“Just finishing the last of the packing. We’re almost there.” Ruby answered.

Glenn added “There’s just a couple more entries under history. The next one is 2024-Schizoaffective disorder”

Still staring at the ceiling, Clem answered in an airy voice. “That just means I’m nuts… I hear from dead people. It’s been going on for a long time, she just put 2024 as the date because that’s when I started talking back to them. After I lost Louis and Christa, I just stopped giving a fuck about anything. I didn’t care if people heard me.”

Ruby tapped on Clem’s stump to get her attention, eliciting an exclamation of pain and a glare from Clem. “Hey! You’re not nuts. Hearin’ whispers and seein’ shadows is normal for someone with PTSD. Especially when the trauma involves people dyin’ around ya, which you’ve had a lot of.”

Clem cocked an eyebrow and lamented “I do a lot more than just hear whispers. I hear their voices, I’ll see them, full body, and when it comes to Vi, I feel her… Just, all of a sudden, I’ll realize her arms are around me. Sometimes I can even smell her, she’s so close. Then I open my eyes, and she’s gone.”

Ruby looked down at her hands for a moment, then back at Clem. “Look, I can’t claim to be an expert on this stuff. Heck, most of what I know about psychology I read in books you found for me, so I’m guessin’ you read ‘em first… but considerin’ all you’ve been through, the fact that you’re stronger than ever is what’s abnormal, not that you’ve picked up a few scars along the way… mental or physical”

After a brief silence, Glenn asked “How did you snap out of it? The depression I mean. How did you get yourself out of bed?”

Clem gave a sheepish smile “The voices ganged up on me. Lee had already been trying to reason with me, and Kenny was ordering me up, then Louis came along and started to make me laugh. Poor Jessi, once again, she was the one watching over me at the time. I think I scared the hell out of her. I can’t even remember what Louis said, I just burst out laughing, and she sent whatever she was reading flying.”

Ruby smirked “OK, I think that one ranks a little higher on the list of things that’ve traumatized Jess than your DTs did, just because of the surprise factor, but I still don’t think it even breaks the top thousand.”

Glenn summed up the rest of the page. “The last entry says 2029-Bradycardia. Then it goes on to a blank medication list.”

Ruby explained “Bradycardia means low heart rate. It’s normal with two groups of people; people with damaged hearts and people with super healthy hearts, like distance runners. I’ll give you one guess as to which group Clem is in. After she bounced back from, well, everything, runnin’ became her new addiction. Just out of curiosity, could you flip ahead to the next page to see when Doc Hansen dated that entry? There should also be a vital signs section on that page, could you read it off so we know just how low her pulse was back then?”

Glenn flipped to the next page and scanned for the date. “November 10, 2029. As for the vitals… it says ‘T-97.4, P39, R12, BP102/58, Pn3/10w, Ht5’3”, Wt122lbs.’… I hope that made sense to you.”

Ruby answered as she finished wrapping up Clem’s stump. “Her pulse was 39. 60 is the low end of normal. Sounds like she was ready for a marathon.” As for medications, flip back a ways, try near the end. You might find we actually have something written there.”

Glenn flipped directly to the most recent entry, skipped to the medications list, and began to read off the names. “Willow bark, Passiflora, Comfrey, and Hypericum.”

Ruby began cleaning up her remaining supplies as she explained “Willow bark is a pain reliever, it’s what people originally got Aspirin from. Passiflora has effects similar to a Benzodiazepine, it’s mostly to help Clem sleep but it also helps with pain and depression. Hypericum is for primarily for depression but can help with phantom limb pain and alcohol cravings. And Comfrey is for pain, specifically bone pain, but ya gotta be careful with the dosing on it, ‘cause too much can be toxic.”

Clem chimed in “My nightly tea. We tried Arnica and Valerian for a while but decided Comfrey and Passiflora just worked better.”

Ruby looked around for a place to deposit her used instruments and ended up just leaving them on the counter. “Do you wanna tell Glenn how we came by all them herbs?”

Clem sat up on the side of the table and answered “Not really.”

Ruby grabbed Clem’s prosthetic leg from the counter and chided “Aww, c’mon, I’ve been hearin’ you say for years that feller had it commin’. Don’t you wanna tell Glenn here how you gave Arvo his comeuppance?”

Clem slumped her shoulders and in a voice of resignation asked “Why are you doing this?”

Ruby launched into the story “Ya’see Glenn, this little feller in glasses came to our gate, what was it, about ten years ago? Awful polite. Ridin’ a wagon filled with potted plants, looked like any old merchant. We see dozens of ‘em ev’ry day. When he got off his cart I could see he walked with a cane and had a metal brace on his leg. Didn’t seem threatenin’ in the least. He asked for Clementine, which is usually a red flag, but I didn’t see any weapons on him. Still, I led him to Molly first, she checked him out while the guards checked out his wares. Turned out I was right, the closest thing he had to a weapon was a trowel. We told him where the market was, but he told us he wasn’t there to sell his plants. They were a gift. He explained he’d wronged Clem a long time ago, that they’d quarreled over medicine, and that it’d haunted him ever since. After they parted ways, he found religion and started pursuin’ the healin’ arts. He wanted to make things right with Clem, not just say he was sorry, and since their fight was over medicine, he brought samples of all the medicinal herbs he’d been cultivating, so we could grow our own. He and I waited in the church while Molly went and fetched ole Clem here. We got to talkin’, turns out he’d learned a lot about herbalism. He’d pretty seriously turned his life around and helped a lot of people. When Clem walked in, this feller disengaged his brace and dropped to his knees. He wept when he told her how bad he felt about what he’d done, how he thought for sure he was goin’ to hell for killin’ her. That he’d dedicated his life to helpin’ others in the hopes that someday God could forgive him. It was plain to see that poor wretch could never forgive himself. When he heard about Everett, and that she was runnin it, he thought it was a sign, a miracle. He thought for sure it meant that God forgave him. He just had to come, share his bounty with her, and ask for her forgiveness too… Clem, you wanna tell him the rest or should I continue?”

Clem whispered “no.”

Ruby kept going “So, Clem walks up to him, takes him by the hand and raises him to his feet. I ain’t never seen no one so happy as he was in that moment, thinkin’ she forgave him. A moment later I could see the tip of her knife stickin’ out his back. She tore it across his gut and out his side, darn near cuttin’ him in half. But hey, it was justice, right? And on top of that, now all of Appalachia is benefittin’ from the herbs he brought, since we shared the seeds we collected from his plants, far and wide.”

Clem glared at Ruby and defiantly growled “Even he knew it was what he deserved. I showed him the same amount of mercy he showed me.”

Exasperated, Ruby asked “Clem, have you ever forgiven anyone in your entire life?”

Her question was met by a firm “No” from Clementine. “Now would you mind handing me my leg so we can get out of here?”

“You might wanna try it some time, maybe do what Arvo couldn’t and start with yourself…” Ruby turned to address Glenn “I don’t think you’ll wanna be here for this next part. She ain’t gonna like what I have to say. I’ve known her long enough to know she ain’t gonna hurt me but, as for you, that’s another story. Why don’t you go find us a wheelchair and some crutches?”

Glenn took the hint and left the room. From halfway down the hall he could hear Clem yell “Oh, fuck that!” and was glad he’d heeded Ruby’s advice. One of the nurses showed him to a storage closet where they found a wheelchair and a pair of aluminum crutches, which he adjusted to the 5’3” settings marked on their shafts.

When he returned to the exam room, a small crowd of staff and guards had gathered outside. Glenn recognized a couple of the guards from the markings on their uniforms as ones they’d arrived with. “After you” he told them. “You’re the ones wearing armor.”

Cautiously they opened the door and were relived to see her hands were empty. “Give me the damn crutches” she snarled, then snatched them as Glenn held them out toward her. She used the crutches to maneuver off of the table and into the wheelchair. A little calmer, she argued “I can’t just suddenly disappear and I won’t be seen in public in this thing. I have a speech scheduled at the courthouse tomorrow. I will be using my leg for that speech. Tonight we can come up with some excuse for me to have to return home. I can announce it during the speech. I’ll have Glenn come on stage with me, so I can lean on him. We’ll be under the statue of Rick, so it’ll seem natural for him to be there. After that, you can hide me away in Everett while this thing heals, so no one sees me like this.”

“I can think of an excuse.” Glenn contributed as he handed Clem her coat. “Valerie Ubaste found the remains of Lee Everett and Ed Crawford in Savannah.” He intentionally omitted mentioning Oberson to avoid enraging her further. “They’re in a wagon on their way to Everett as we speak, so you can say you have to return to be there when they arrive.”

Clem was already looking pale from fighting off the infection, but Glenn could have sworn even more color drained from her face. Her mouth opened as if to speak, but all she ended up doing was blinking. The politician with an answer for everything had been rendered speechless.

Ruby slung Clem’s prosthetic over her shoulder and picked up her satchel. “I think that excuse will work nicely.” She faced Clem and in a scolding tone added “Although I don’t see why you have to be the one to deliver it. Let Glenn give your speech while we leave for Everett, now. I meant what I said about you staying off that leg. I don’t like the idea of you spendin’ one more day puttin’ pressure on that wound ‘cause of your pride, especially when you have the perfect proxy on hand to take your place.”

Clem snapped back to reality and declared “No, I won’t risk losing the mandate of the people over this. I’m going out there to let them know I’m not abandoning them.” She then tucked her coat over her legs like a blanket in a way that hid them from view.

Ruby walked ahead of them as they made their way out into the hall, collecting two jars of pills from a nurse as she went, and telling Clem “Suit yourself.”

Clem looked around furtively as the guard pushed her wheelchair down the hall toward the door they’d entered through, clearly nervous that she would be seen. Her coach was waiting for them on the other side. Seeing that there were no witnesses, Clem slung her coat over her shoulder, stood on her one leg, and pulled herself into the coach before anyone had a chance to try to help her. Ruby and Glenn followed her in, while the guards mounted their horses and took their positions around the coach. As they traveled to their hotel, Glenn noticed crowds gathering along the streets to watch as they passed. They knew whose carriage this was.

Much like the hospital, they were able to enter the hotel via a parking structure. Once inside they made their way to a small room with motorized doors that opened when one of the guards pushed a button. After the door closed and the guard pushed another button, Glenn experienced the sensation of movement, and instinctively lowered his center of gravity, prompting a laugh from Clem. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that you’ve never seen an elevator before” she mused.

The door opened to a short hall. Clem wheeled herself to the room at the far end of the hall, pointing out Ruby’s and Glenn’s rooms along the way. Once Glenn had familiarized himself with the layout of his room, he went to the window to check out the view. It was midafternoon, way too early to turn in. His window faced the river. Following it, he was eventually able to spot Lunken airfield. Bob’s plane was gone, probably on its way to Virginia. He scanned further, eventually spotting a street market. He had no money, but it would be interesting to see the sorts of things they made in this place. He stepped out in the hall and let one of the guards know where he’d be going. That guard called out that a “V.I.P.” was exiting the premises. Two guards trotted over and followed Glenn into the elevator. Feeling more weary than curious, Glenn asked “What does V.I.P. mean?” The guard let him know it meant very important person. Glenn rolled his eyes. The descriptor felt meaningless. Cynically, he blurted “I have nothing. No home. No money. No job. I’ve even been separated from my horse. All I have is what you see me wearing, and even it’s falling apart. I’m just Clementine’s virtually insignificant parasite. If you have a better use for your time than following me around, by all means, go about your business.” Nether guard left his side.

Glenn made his way south until he could see the river, then west, knowing he would eventually find the market. It wasn’t long before he found it and made his way to the first of a long line of ramshackle stalls. It was selling a variety of ceramics, not really something that interested him. He scanned down the line of stalls until he found one that piqued his interest. He made his way through the crowd until he reached a vendor selling wooden toys. He knew he couldn’t afford to leave with any, but he took his time and examined several so that he could replicate them for the kids back home. He would’ve loved to spend more time with the puzzle boxes so he could get a better idea how to design his own, but the merchant had begun to give him an irritated look. He put the box down and gave the stall owner an apologetic nod, then noticed what was in his hand. He was in the process of carving another toy. Looking further, Glenn spotted a pile of wood scraps on the floor in the corner of the stall, among them were a few pieces of maple, just the right size to carve a nose out of. If Glenn could get his hands some nutmeg, he’d be able to make a stain that when applied to that maple would roughly match Ranger Allen’s skin hue.

He had no money to offer, and he knew better than to ask for charity, so he offered the one thing he could, his skill. “I see you’ve got some maple back there. I don’t have any money to offer but I’ll tell you what, you point to any item you’ve got for sale here and I can duplicate it for you in exchange for just a couple of those maple scraps. All I’ll need from you is the wood to make it out of and a little time.” Glenn hoped he’d point to puzzle box but instead he pointed to the street and told him to make room for the paying customers. It’d been worth a shot.

Opposite the toy vendor stood a merchant selling various pieces of denim clothing. Glenn approached and eyed a pair of jeans longingly. He wasn’t looking forward to going on stage with Clem tomorrow wearing his current patchwork jeans, but he had nothing to barter with, not even skill when it came to this vendor, so there was no way he’d be getting one of these new pairs. After admiring them a little longer, he sighed and started scanning for another booth to look at. Maybe he could find a few more interesting wooden knickknacks he could copy. Nothing caught his eye, so he decided to just start walking and hope something caught his attention. After he took a couple steps, one of the guards called out to him “Hey, where do you think you’re going.”

Glenn looked back to make sure the guard was talking to him, then answered “To find something else to look at.”

His answer didn’t satisfy the guard, who replied “No, no, no, no, no. Look at them pants you’ve got on, they look ‘bout ready to fall apart at any moment. Ain’t ya gonna buy a replacement while you’re here?”

Glenn shrugged, “I already told you, I don’t have any money. I’m just here to look.”

“Well that won’t do at all” replied the guard, who then raised his riot shield and began to bang on it with his cudgel. “Ladies and gentlemen may I have your attention, please” he shouted. “It is my great pleasure to announce that we have a distinguished guest visiting our fine market today. None other than the grandson of Rick Grimes himself. Good citizens, may I present to you, Glenn Grimes! He’s here looking for some formal attire for tomorrow’s gathering at the courthouse but, being a stranger to our land, he carries none of our currency. Who among you will rise to the occasion to help him out… and in the process have your wares seen by half The Commonwealth, being worn by the noble scion of the Grimes family, under the statue of Rick no-less!”

Before long, Glenn understood what it felt like to be the rope in a game of tug-of-war. The merchants started calling his name to get his attention, then began pulling on him until one of his sleeves ripped. It was soon covered by a brand new one, along with the new shirt it was attached to. They were tenacious, desperate to have what’s-his-name, the grandson of The Rick Grimes be seen in their products.

It was dark by the time he left. He didn’t go because the merchants had finished offering him stuff, he left because he realized he couldn’t carry any more, even with the guards helping him. Just for the purpose of distributing the load, he wore six shirts, two coats, five pairs of pants and three hats out of the market. Luckily for him, it was a chilly February night, so he could get away with wearing that many layers without baking. Glenn couldn’t remember another occasion when he’d found himself uttering the words “thank you” more times than he had in that market. On their way back to the hotel, the guard who’d announced his presence to the merchants made sure to tell him “you’re welcome”. If the guard had presumed that the thanks had been directed at him rather than the merchants, he was correct.

When they got back to his hotel room, they unloaded their haul onto his bed, then the guards departed, shutting the door behind them. Too late, it occurred to him that he’d forgotten to ask their names, and because of their masked helmets he didn’t even know what their faces looked like. They hadn’t been seeking anything from him, this had been an act of pure kindness, and by remaining anonymous to him they ensured he could never seek to repay them.

He sorted through the clothes and placed them in the hotel room cabinet. Once the bed was clear, he began to remove the many layers he’d piled on. As he hung the first jacket in the closet, he noticed the sound of wood clanking against wood. He hadn’t bumped the cabinet door, the only thing he’d moved was the jacket. He checked the pockets and found that two maple scraps had been stuffed into the left hand pocket. He smiled, placed the scraps on the bedside table along with his whittling knife, and went back to hanging up his new wardrobe so he could turn in for the night.

***

Glenn startled awake to the sound of a reverberating bang, followed by a stream of profanity coming from the other side of the wall. It took him a moment to realize that it had just been Clementine’s “alarm clock” as she called it. She’d punched the wall during a nightmare. Glenn went to the window and looked as far to the east as he could, given he was standing by a south facing window. He could see a hint of light on the horizon indicating that dawn would be coming soon. There was no point trying to go back to sleep.

He showered, shaved, and got dressed, trying to include as many items from as many different vendors as he could in his outfit, then sat on the bed and whittled until he could hear voices in the hall. He stepped out to find Ruby talking to the night shift guards, who were telling her about the loud bang they’d heard from Clem’s room about an hour earlier and that when they went to check on Clem she’d told them she was fine. They added that about a half hour later she scooted out and headed down the elevator, followed by the rest of the guards. Ruby thanked them and made her way to the elevator. Glenn joined her and they made their way to the restaurant that was attached to the lobby, which was where they found Clem. It was just her, her guards, and the restaurant staff. She was the only guest who was up that early. She waved them over and gestured to one of the plates “Ruby, I think I’ve got your usual order down. Glenn, sorry, I just had to guess. I ordered what AJ would’ve asked for at your age.”

It occurred to Glenn that he hadn’t seen Willy since they split up at the hospital. Gesturing to an empty seat at the table he asked “Where’s Willy?”

Clem caught a passing waiter and asked “Hey, do you by any chance have a brothel in this town?” The stunned waiter answered that they did. Clem turned back toward Glenn, shrugged and said “Well, now we know where Willy is. If we’re lucky, we’ll see him at the court house.”

Glenn briefly gave her a disturbed look, then turned his attention to his plate. It looked good and tasted better but, as had become his norm, he could only eat a few bites. Thinking back, he’d started losing his appetite after the events at Johnstown, and it’d only become progressively worse. Seeing that he’d stopped eating, Clem asked “You gonna eat that?” He shook his head and pushed his plate toward her. She made quick work of it and added it to her stack of empty plates. She turned to Ruby, belched so hard he eyes crossed, then announced “Well, I better go get ready.” With that, she pushed herself away from the table and wheeled herself back to the elevator.

Ruby called after her “That was funny when we were kids, now it’s just weird.” Clem acknowledged her with a middle finger salute.

Once Clem and her guards had boarded the elevator, Glenn took the opportunity to ask Ruby about his loss of appetite, while it was just the two of them. She smiled, patted him on the shoulder, and replied “Aww, congratulations on your first trauma symptom, sugar. It shouldn’t be long now before you’re just as bonkers as Clem and her brood.” Ruby dropped the smile and assumed a more serious tone adding “You’re right to be concerned, though, even if you don’t have an appetite you need to eat. You can do some long term damage if you don’t. When we get back to Everett I’ll have to look up what herbs work to stimulate appetite. I know I’ve used ‘em before, and I should be able to remember ‘em, it’s just most people ask me for appetite suppressants, it’s kind of rare that someone needs to go the other way.” Ruby cautioned “Stomachs shrink if you go a long time without eatin’ so you’ll need to stretch it out a bit before you can eat full meals. Probably should start with lotsa small meals. Maybe start carryin’ jerky with ya or somthin’ and poppin it every time you think of it.”

While Ruby spoke, Glenn stared at Clementine’s stack of plates. Following his gaze, Ruby quipped “As for that; some people run ‘cause they’re addicted to eatin’, some people eat ‘cause they’re addicted to runnin’. At this point Clem has to eat enough to feed a small family to keep up her runnin’ habit. Man alive, she’s gonna go nuts this commin’ month… Do ya think there’s such a thing as runnin’ withdrawals?” Glenn just gave her a confused look. Ruby answered herself “I didn’t think so. I ‘spose she’ll just find something else to occupy her time… and that we’re all about to find out just how fast a wheelchair really can go.”

They left the table and walked to the elevator. Glenn stopped by one of the lobby seats and let Ruby know “I’m pretty much ready to go. There’s no point in me going up. I’ll just wait here.” He sat down and pulled the maple out of his pocket so he could whittle while he waited.

Ruby pulled a trashcan over and placed it in front of him “OK, but they’d probably rather you not get shavin’s all over their floor. We shouldn’t be long. Mostly need to pad her prosthetic to minimize the damage. Be back in a bit.”

In no time they were back, without the wheelchair. Clem was leaning on Ruby in an attempt to avoid putting too much weight on her left leg, but she was hiding it well. They made their way to the carriage, then onward to the courthouse. They arrived at a side entrance and were shown through the building until they arrived at the lobby by the main entrance. Clem leaned against the reception desk and asked “Did you bring it?”

Ruby reached into her satchel and pulled out a worn out old blue and white hat with the letter D on it and handed it to Clementine. Clem cradled it with the level of reverence you’d expect to see from a priest handling a holy relic. She asked “Did I ever tell you the story behind this hat?”

Ruby nodded. “Yeah, lots of times. It was your dad’s. You wore it through the trials because it was your last connection to your family.”

Clem smiled and her eyes grew distant. “He was a baseball player as a kid. He was good, good enough that Stanford offered him a baseball scholarship. He didn’t need it. His family was rich and he had the grades to go wherever he wanted, but this way he felt like he earned it. Pissed his dad off, he wanted my dad to go to Harvard, like he had. After they made it to The College World Series, The Dragons tried to recruit him. They gave him a hat, a jersey, and a contract to sign. All he had to do was drop out of college and head to Japan, which also meant leaving my mom, who was in the middle of her residency. He gave them back their contract and proposed to her instead… but he kept the jersey and the hat. When he’d tell me that story, he’d end with: ‘I said no to the pros and chose you instead’ then he’d put his hat on my head and say ‘best decision I ever made.’” She lowered the hat and motioned toward the window with her head. “Well, Glenn, out there is the big leagues. When you walk to that podium with me, everything changes. Well, more than it already has. Right now, you’re a big deal to Virginia. After you go out there, half the continent will be buzzing about you. Now, I need you out there, but if you don’t want to do this, I’ll understand. If you choose hang back, to stay out of the public eye so you can eventually go back to an ordinary life, hey, no hard feelings. Nothing will change between us. But if you come with me, a great and terrible new world of opportunities will open up to you. It’s gonna be one hell of a ride but I promise you, stick with me kid, It’ll be the best decision you’ve ever made.”

Through the windows, Glenn could see a crowd had gathered at the base of the courthouse steps. They’d massed around the statue of a man he’d been told was his grandpa and were chanting Clementine’s name. At the top of the steps stood a podium, which was where they’d be going. “How many people are out there?” he asked the guard at the door. “About fifty-thousand” was the answer he received. Glenn’s eyes bulged and he looked at Clem. She held out her hand and gave him a reassuring smile. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then opened his eyes and took her hand.

Clementine nodded at the guard, who opened the door. She muttered “here goes” and they began to walk. She tightened her grip and put a fair amount of her weight on Glenn’s hand as they moved, trying hard to hide her limp from the crowd. Once they arrived at the podium she released Glenn’s hand and pressed her left knee against the shelf in the podium for balance while bearing the majority of her weight on her right leg. After adjusting the height of the microphone she paused for a moment, allowing for dramatic effect, then held up her hat for the crowd to see. When she put it on her head the crowd erupted in cheers.

She adjusted the position of her hat while waiting for the cheers to die down, then began her speech. “Thank you… Thank you… I…” She paused as the last of the cheering faded. “I feel honored and somewhat humbled to know that the tale of an orphan girl just trying to survive in a world gone mad has inspired so many of you… that when you reached your point of greatest desperation, you thought of me. That the little girl who could survive alone, the girl who could protect so many… the girl who founded a nation… that she gave you the hope you needed to sustain you through the dark times you’ve had to endure… and that she… I… was the one who came to mind when you tried to imagine who could deliver you from the corruption that has plagued your people… You know, it’s fitting that you’ve called me to this, of all places, the city of Cincinnati… a city named after Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. Cincinnatus was a just and honest man who had retired from public service to live out his golden years on his family’s farm, but when a hostile neighbor and internal corruption threatened Rome, they called upon Cincinnatus to act as their king, to deliver them from the evils that were on the verge of tearing them apart. He answered their call, not once, but twice, and Rome was better for it. People of The Commonwealth, I hear you. I have heard that your children starve while the wealthy feast. I have heard that you are made to feel like you do not matter to those who have assumed control over your lives. I have heard that you have felt hope before, when a hero came and delivered you from the caste system that had been smothering your dreams in their infancy. We stand under that hero’s statue today, his blood, his heir, the legacy of his name, stands beside me now, as we have stood together for the past several months against our common enemy. I have heard of how the hope that Rick gave you was shattered by a villain’s bullet, a cruel and unjust fate for a man of such nobility. The villain, whose name I will not speak, stole your hero from your land before he could complete his task and fully deliver you to the righteous governance you deserve. I have heard of how your upper caste manipulated Rick’s reforms to ensure that the de jure caste system was simply replaced by a de facto one, with the only difference being that it was enforced through economic power rather than the point of a gun. Yes, people of The Commonwealth, I have heard your tales of woe. Now hear me. I have answered your call, and like Cincinnatus before me, I will accept the awesome responsibility of the absolute power you have offered me with the knowledge that the power is not meant for my benefit, it is for you. I have been granted your trust not so that others may serve me, but so that I may serve all of you. I must, however, make myself clear. When I say all, I do not limit myself to the service of the people of The Commonwealth, or Appalachia, or Virginia. Conflict is that natural state of humanity. Human history has been dominated by one war after the next. The old world was an endless cycle of conflict; one nation would reach its zenith and assert its might over other nations, then it would decline and another would rise, only to repeat the cycle. This cycle rendered the world that I began my life in a harsh and brutal one. It was a world where people routinely killed each other over how they worshiped, or their opinions on governance, or who they loved, or even the color of their skin. It was a world where we were taught that atomic fire could be brought raining down upon us based on the whims of a few powerful men, bringing a sudden and meaningless end to all existence at any moment. It was not a world anyone sane would want to bring their child into… All parents want a better world for their children… that goes for grandparents as well. When my grandson was born and I got my first look at him, my own life flashed before me. All the horror, all the pain, all the madness this world had heaped upon me… I feared for him, for what the future had in store, but then I had an epiphany. We are at a unique moment in history. The trials have interrupted the cycle of conflict, but this interruption is only temporary. There are less people on this world now than ever. We still have the technology available to us to unite humanity into one global nation. All we need to do is gather the resources necessary to restore it and we can bring our incessant state of conflict to a permanent end. Together, between the mineral resources of Appalachia, the vast populace of The Commonwealth, the grain produced by your Midland Colonies, and the steadfast resilience of the people of Virginia, we will be well on our way to restoring that technology. Combine that with the petroleum we receive from our good friends in the Western Alliance and the production capacity we will gain once we defeat The Provident and we can be the common power that awes mankind out of its cycle of perpetual war. People of The Commonwealth, I have answered your call, now it is time for you to answer me. Here is the covenant I offer you. With the aid of his heir, I will complete the task Rick Grimes began. I will forge for you the government you deserve. In return, you will aid me in my quest to forever rid the world of the ceaseless bloodshed that has plagued us since the dawn of humanity. Good people, if after hearing my terms you still want my aid, then call on me to be your queen. Not just The Commonwealth but the world will be better for it. What say you?”

The crowd’s response began with a cheer, which coalesced into a chant of “queen, queen, queen”. After a minute or so, Clementine raised her arms to stop the chanting. When it was over, she concluded “Then we have an agreement. I will lead you to the prosperity you have long since earned, and together we will bring a lasting peace to the world… Now, I must admit, I can’t do this alone. Everett’s prosperity was the result of the hard work of a talented group of people. I’ll need to return home to gather my team if we’re to be successful here. I also have personal business to attend to. When Glenn arrived yesterday, he brought news that the remains of my father and Lee Everett, the hero most revered by my people, had been recovered. I’ll need to oversee their interment and provide them the appropriate honors.” Clementine grabbed Glenn’s right hand with her left and gave him a theatrical smile. “For now I will leave you in the capable hands of Rick Grimes grandson, Glenn. He will be assisted by Everett’s City Planner, who has already begun to coordinate his efforts with his Commonwealth counterparts.” Clem held Glenn’s hand up and placed her right hand on top of it for the crowd to see. The crowd, of course, cheered.

Glenn felt his heart sink, but tried not to show it. This was why she needed him so urgently that she sent a plane to retrieve him, so she could solidify her hold on The Commonwealth by using him as her link to Rick. And, given the state of affairs in Virginia, he was in no position to argue with her. Valerie was right, his choice was monarchy or theocracy, and at least this way he would be on good terms with the queen.

Clementine lowered their hands, smiled and waved at the crowd. She gave them a thank you, which they probably couldn’t hear over their cheers, then signaled Glenn that it was time to go back into the courthouse. They returned to the lobby where Ruby was waiting with a concerned look. “How’d the leg hold up?”

“I think I’m ready for the wheelchair” answered Clem through gritted teeth. They hurried her to her carriage without further conversation, so she could get the weight off her stump as soon as possible. As the carriage began to move, Clem began her doffing process, periodically wincing as she manipulated her prosthetic.

Ruby was the first to speak. “So, uh, that wasn’t exactly what I expected. I’m not sure how well the whole queen thing will be received back home and all.”

Still focusing on doffing, Clem answered “They’ll react the same way they have every time I got released from one of Molly’s cells. They’ll accept it, because they know what AJ will do if they don’t.”

Ruby pursed her lips and nodded, then said “OK… that was… ominous. So about that speech, what were we gonna do if that mob decided they didn’t want a queen. I mean, I don’t think we coulda outrun ‘em.”

Clem pulled off her leg and sighed with relief, then answered “It was rigged. We had our agents bring all their assets. They were scattered through the crowd, leading the chants. Besides that, with Glenn there, under the statue of Rick, they were on an emotional high, they would've said yes to whatever I asked.”

Ruby looked over at Glenn as though hoping he knew how to respond to that. He didn’t, but he did have something else to say. “You told those people you were leaving me in charge. I have no clue what to do. You know I’m not a politician, right?”

Clem answered while looking for a good place to stow her prosthetic. “Neither was Rick. Neither was I… not until I had to be. Just do what feels right to you. That’s what worked for Rick. While you’re at it, mention Rick as often as you possibly can. Remember, you’re just a figurehead. My team should arrive in around three weeks to start making the real changes. Don’t worry, I’ll be back when I’ve healed up. Oh, and try to keep Willy out of trouble. We don’t want to lose The Commonwealth because he broke up the wrong person’s marriage.”

When they arrived at the entrance to the hotel, the staff and guards were waiting for them with Ruby’s satchel, Clem’s crutches, and a bag Glenn hadn’t seen before. When the door of the coach opened, Ruby and Glenn got up but Clem stopped Ruby. “He’s staying. We’re leaving. I told them to have our stuff ready for us to take to the plane. I don’t want to spend another minute in this town unless I can do it standing upright. My hold here is tenuous, so the way people see me is important. Glenn, I’m counting on you to build my support while I’m absent. And remember what I said, keep Willy on track. Don’t let him fuck this up.”

Glenn stepped down to the curb as the baggage was loaded onto the carriage, then watched as Clem and her retinue departed. He turned toward the hotel entrance and was struck by how overwhelmingly empty his mind was when he tried to think of what to do next.


End file.
